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Bone Marrow


ned

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Around lunchtime yesterday a friend and I shared a fabulous dish of bone marrow, parsley salad, cornichons and shallots, served with thick, charred country bread. The fellow with whom I was sharing the dish said he thought that marrow was fat. I feel pretty sure it's something different, I mean if it's fat then our bones have fat running through the middle and a bone marrow transplant is just a fat transplant. How can that be? Does anybody know what the heck bone marrow is actually?

Edited by ned (log)

You shouldn't eat grouse and woodcock, venison, a quail and dove pate, abalone and oysters, caviar, calf sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, and ducks all during the same week with several cases of wine. That's a health tip.

Jim Harrison from "Off to the Side"

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I'm not a doctor, but bone marrow is what produces white blood cells, so it's certainly not fat, though it may contain fat. I'm more inclined to believe it's a gland, like sweetbreads.

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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Bone marrow in mature long bones (from which I believe most culinary marrow comes) is primarily "yellow marrow" rich in adipose tissue. While it is not pure fat, it is indeed pretty close and for culinary purposes it essentially is.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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From the 1964 edition of The Joy of Cooking. Under "About Marrow," the first words are none too encouraging: "Spinal marrow, which is really a continuation of the brain, may be substituted in any of the recipes for brains." We are further warned not to overcook the marrow, "as it is very fat and simply disintegrates under too high heat."

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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One will find "red marrow" in the "flat" bones of adults such as the sternum, ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, etc., which is why some will see redness in the marrow of rib chops and the like. The marrow in a veal shank is, however, yellow and very rich in fat. It does contain precursors for blood cells and can convert back to "red marrow" in times of anemia or hypoxia.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Now I have a craving to go to Prune, which is a wonderful restaurant in the East Village in NYC, where roasted bone marrow is an appetizer. (Probably not going to do that anytime soon though, and more's the pity. :shock: )

Soba

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Now I have a craving to go to Prune, which is a wonderful restaurant in the East Village in NYC, where roasted bone marrow is an appetizer.  (Probably not going to do that anytime soon though, and more's the pity.  :shock: )

Soba

Now I have a craving to not eat marrow ever again. :wacko:

To each his own.

Edited by bilrus (log)

Bill Russell

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From the 1964 edition of The Joy of Cooking. Under "About Marrow," the first words are none too encouraging: "Spinal marrow, which is really a continuation of the brain, may be substituted in any of the recipes for brains." We are further warned not to overcook the marrow, "as it is very fat and simply disintegrates under too high heat."

I could be wrong but I think spinal bone marrow is a different thing than actual bone marrow from the shank. The spinal one is actually from the spine (spinal cord) and is an extension of the brain. It serves a different purpose than the bone shank marrow.

Elie

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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Eww. Too much information. But then again, I eat chicken and there's way too much information about slaughtering methods out there as well.

Must keep mind blank.....

I was fortunate enough to eat at St. John in London last January. The roasted bone marrow with parsley salad and toasted bread was to die for.

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henderson's technique (which i just tested) worked great and it couldn't be simpler: roast the bone at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the marrow is jellied under the browned cap. that's it. the salad is just chopped parsley and capers.

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i've only ever had goat/lamb marrow (since goat and to a lesser extent lamb is predominantly what indians cook). how does beef marrow differ in taste and texture?

i still believe the most enjoyable way to eat marrow is in a spicy curry. finish everything, leave the marrow bone for last, and then suck the marrow out of the bone after thumping it on the plate a couple of times--or if you're a pukka days-of-the-raj indian employ one of those dainty marrow-forks. the test of a season pressure-cooker cook is whether they can get the mutton curry done without melting all the marrow away.

edit to add: in a goat or any other curry spicy gravy will enter the bone as well making for a divine sucking experience.

Edited by mongo_jones (log)
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i6047.jpg

Roasted marrow bones with oxtail "marmelade" at Blue Ribbon.

That was always a real treat when I lived in NYC. We used to go there after work and have bone marrow/oxtail marmelade in the wee hours. They had a great steak tartare also. Always a good time.

Rodney

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I was fortunate enough to eat at St. John in London last January. The roasted bone marrow with parsley salad and toasted bread was to die for.

I'm very surprised to hear that, even as of last January, you were able to eat marrow in the UK...bovine spongiform encephalitis (Mad Cow)...we were in London right after the big outbreak, and you couldn't get any beef on the bone.

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I was fortunate enough to eat at St. John in London last January. The roasted bone marrow with parsley salad and toasted bread was to die for.

I'm very surprised to hear that, even as of last January, you were able to eat marrow in the UK...bovine spongiform encephalitis (Mad Cow)...we were in London right after the big outbreak, and you couldn't get any beef on the bone.

Beef on the bone is now legal again, thank God.

Basically the English reaction to BSE was to destroy most cattle. The beef we eat nowadays ought to be fine (touch wood) - beef in the UK nowadays is if anything safer than that in most other countries, where BSE might be flying under the radar. Of course, this is little comfort to those of us who were eating the stuff in the 80s and early 90s :sad: .

St John's bone marrow really is the business: I stopped by there for a late lunch on my own the other day: it felt very therapeutic to sit at one of the tables in the half-empty bar (it was 3pm on a weekday), gnawing on a few bones...

Edited by Stigand (log)
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Thanks for all the fabulous replies. Makes me wonder now what sort of reciprocal relationship fat and blood have. I was at Prune by the way, SobaAddict70 and I want to go back again tomorrow and the next day and the next day and. . . maybe there's a limit to how many junipero martinis a guy can drink.

There are lots of great uses for bone marrow. I've used it in a tart with vidalias, another time with leeks. It can be part of a sauce for a rib chop, at Strip House for example. Get all the marrow out, mash it with the roasted garlic using the back of a fork then smear the paste on top of their excellent rib chop. (Take two to four bites, feel as if on spirit plane, then feel heart rate accelerate alarmingly and ask to take rest home in doggy bag).

You shouldn't eat grouse and woodcock, venison, a quail and dove pate, abalone and oysters, caviar, calf sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, and ducks all during the same week with several cases of wine. That's a health tip.

Jim Harrison from "Off to the Side"

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Tiny pouches of brioche stuffed with bits of bone marrrow, grated horseradish and snipped chives and baked until golden brown and puffed -----a wonderful accompaniment to a pot au feu or to serve with drinks.

Makes 15

3/4 pound brioche doubh

3 3-inch marrow bones

1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh horseradish

salt and pepper

egg glaze for the brioche

Divide doubh into 15 equal pieces, each the size of a walnut. Pat into 1 1/2 inch rounds. Curve each into a small cup and drop in a seasoned marrow cube.Close up, let rise for 30 minutes, glaze and bake in a 375 oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve hot.

from Pleasures of Cooking Vol 11 No 4, 1979

Brioche and its many uses by Paula Wolfert

Edited by Wolfert (log)

“C’est dans les vieux pots, qu’on fait la bonne soupe!”, or ‘it is in old pots that good soup is made’.

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Marrow was a very popular ingredient in European cooking until very recently. English Cooks seemed to be adding marrow to everything until the 19th century. Infact, archaeologists  point out that or ancestors were busy cracking the bones of animals and each other to get at the marrow.

Since "marrow" just means core, the exact meaning can vary a lot, but for most cooking purposes it refers to the yellow fatty marrow of the femur etc. Yes, it is fatty, but it also has structure. So you can poach marrow forinstance, but see what happens to a stick of butter if you attempt that. Marrow is Everymans Foie gras.

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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